Three Years
by CJ - Lady of Gryffindor
Summary: A series of one-shots featuring conversations taking place over the three years immediately following the defeat of Naraku. InuYasha and Kagome have been separated by time... while they mourn, loved ones do their best to console their broken hearts.
1. InuYasha: Heart of the Brothers

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of the amazingly talented Rumiko Takahashi

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- Heart of the Brothers

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InuYasha's heart hurt as he pulled himself out of the well. Every day for weeks he had been coming to the well, futility attempting to cross over into the future. Always, the well stopped where it was originally meant to stop...on a cold, hard, bone strewn bottom.

More and more InuYasha had begun to realize that the path he traveled with Kagome had been permanently rent into two separate journeys that they were left to travel alone.

What had been the purpose of bringing them together only to tear them from one another in the end?

InuYasha sank to the ground at the side of the well and did his best to swallow the pain and sadness that threatened to consume him. To say he missed Kagome was a gross understatement. When air was cut off from someone, did they merely _miss_ breathing?

His pride had resisted the tears in the first days after he had been forced back through the well, leaving Kagome in the future and dropping him to a time where she wouldn't be born for another five hundred years. But he had learned to cry because of Kagome Higurashi, to deny her his tears now would be so very wrong.

InuYasha sighed deeply and allowed the tears to come.

"The old miko told this Sesshomaru that I would find you here."

InuYasha's head jerked up to find his half-brother standing in the clearing.

"What do you want Sesshomaru?" InuYasha wiped his face on his sleeve, but refused to rise to his feet.

"I have come to check on my ward, to assure that she is being well cared for by your people." Sesshomaru stepped forward and to InuYasha's surprise, sat next to him on the ground.

"Rin's fine." InuYasha bristled at his brother's subtle suggestion that perhaps Rin might not be faring well under their care.

"This Sesshomaru had no doubt to that fact, but only wished to confirm it for his own peace of mind."

InuYasha laughed a little "You could just admit that you missed her Bastard. It wouldn't kill you."

Sesshomaru grinned a little "Of course it would not, half-breed, but I also wondered to the disposition of the young yokai slayer as well. And it is his well-being that this Sesshomaru is concerned about."

"Kohauku is fine."

"The old miko tells me he has many nightmares of the things Naraku forced him to do." Sesshomaru's face creased with a hint of worry.

InuYasha nodded "It's only been a few weeks. Kaede says that it will take a lot of time for him to heal. He will never be the same as he was before, but with time, she thinks he will be okay."

"And what of yourself InuYasha?"

"What about me?"

"The houshi has told this Sesshomaru that you are in considerable pain as well, that your loss of your miko has left you irreparably damaged."

InuYasha shifted uncomfortably. Since when did Sesshomaru give a shit about his pain?

"Do not be offended InuYasha. Their words to this Sesshomaru came from their concern for you, not out of idle gossip."

"I know that much." InuYasha rolled his eyes "But since when do you give a shit about my pain Sesshomaru?" He snorted "I thought my suffering made _you_ happy."

"Is it so difficult, half-breed, for you to consider that perhaps our shared experience changed things?"

InuYasha thought of their "shared experience"...the final battle with Naraku.

"You protected Kagome after I pushed her from the high wall of Naraku's flesh and tried to kill her. Maybe that does mean...I don't know...something."

"Kagome believed that you pushed her to protect her from your full Yokai form."

"Kagome always thought too highly of me." InuYasha smirked

"You doubt her insight, yet you traveled side by side for over a year. Who could possibly know your motivations better?"

"I attacked her with my claws Sesshomaru. I spilled her blood."

"Yet when faced with the opportunity to kill Rin, a girl you barely knew, much less held in any sort of esteem, you prevented this as well." Sesshomaru looked at InuYasha earnestly.

InuYasha jumped to his feet. "Where is this coming from Sesshomaru? You hold no '_esteem_' for me yet you stand here speaking as if you might actually be trying to comfort me."

"Impossible. This Sesshomaru cares not for your comfort." the small smile on Sesshomaru's face belied his words. "You know InuYasha, father would have been very proud of you."

InuYasha snorted.

"You mock my words? Do you not fully realize what occurred inside the abomination?" Sesshomaru stood so he could look into InuYasha's face. "You threw off your yokai instincts to kill, InuYasha, in order to save Kagome's life. You then went on to save the lives of your friends, perhaps even this Sesshomaru, Kohauku and Rin, and brought Naraku down at last. Why do you scoff when I tell you father would have been proud of you?"

"Don't you see? I didn't do it alone. I did it all with Kagome, her voice brought me back...I did it all for Kagome."

"Kagome was no where near when you spared Rin's life."

InuYasha had no answer for that. He stared into Sesshomaru's honey colored eyes, so much like their fathers.

"InuYasha... Do not give up hope that one day Kagome will return to your side. It is the way of the world that few partings are forever. Love can do miraculous things. If it can turn a heartless yokai, one that would have killed his own flesh and blood, into a slave to a little human girls heart, it can bring Kagome back to your side."

InuYasha looked away and nodded silently. Sesshomaru moved past him to return to the village. He was quite anxious to spend some time with Rin all of a sudden. He stopped and looked at InuYasha over his shoulder.

"Perhaps it is even enough to make the same heartless yokai proud of the half-breed brother he would have once slaughtered without a second thought or regret."

With a curt nod Sesshomaru turned and made his way back to the village.

InuYasha sank down to sit on the side of the well, his legs weak with shock. Who would have ever thought...his bastard brother was proud of him.

He had to admit that Sesshomaru had made some sense. If there was enough magic left in the world to make Sesshomaru grow a conscience and a heart...maybe there _was_ enough magic left to one day return Kagome to his side.

InuYasha reach out his hand and caressed the side of the bone eaters well.

He would never give up hope.

Never.

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-PLEASE REVIEW!!

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	2. Kagome: Believe

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-The inspiration just keeps coming...so I guess this is a series now. LOL I am really, really, enjoying writing InuYasha again. I had no idea how much I missed it.

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Believe

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Kagome stood above the well, staring down into the depths and once again wondering...why...

...why had it taken InuYasha away from her?

Kagome turned away and slowly plodded to the only place that brought her peace. Her feet were leaden, her eyes cast down dejectedly, tears poured from eyes that were more accustom to the salty wetness than they were to being without.

It was year ago today.

Naraku was defeated at last, the Shikon no Tama had been banished to a place where it could never hurt anyone ever again and Kagome returned home from three days in the darkness of hell. She had just turned her head to thank InuYasha...and then...he just...vanished. His body was enveloped in the familiar blue light of the well and then he was...gone. Gone from her sight, gone from her days and gone from her nights, most of all, he was gone from her life.

Kagome felt like she was missing a limb. And just like those who lost limbs, she found herself reaching for him at odd times, like those who reached down to scratch psychosomatic itches in limbs that had been gone for years.

But what she had lost wasn't an arm or a leg, that would have been trivial when compared with what she was missing.

Kagome Higurashi was a young woman who lived without benefit of heart or soul. Inside her was a empty, beating shell that managed to pump blood, feeding her body and keeping her alive. Her heart and soul, however, had been left with the man with the silver hair and honey eyes...the one who had been torn from her and banished to a place that existed five hundred years before her birth.

At first she had hoped that InuYasha's extended lifespan might bring him to her time naturally, but as the weeks went by that hope was extinguished. Perhaps InuYasha had died, maybe killed in one of the violent yokai battles she had once been witness to with stunning regularity. The thought made Kagome weak with pain and regret, but of the two possibilities, it was the easiest to consider.

The other...well, the other left her shattered for hours afterward, submerged into a pain so horrible it left her almost unable to breath, her empty heart barely beating.

The other possibility was that, perhaps, InuYasha had gone on... found someone else who meant more to him than she ever had.

Kagome knew her thoughts were selfish. It wasn't right for her to wish that he would have spent five hundred years alone, Kaede, Miroku and Sango long since passed on to the other world, Shippo, likely gone off to live his own life.

Surely Miroku and Sango would have had children. They would have been family to InuYasha, their children, and their children after that, would have had children. Kagome had tried once, in the early days, to trace Sango and Miroku up through history. But with no surname, it was impossible. Of all the old scrolls in the shrine, the oldest only went back to eighteen fifty nine. The first scroll contained news of a fire that had leveled the shrine and therefore, wiped out any chance of Kagome learning what had become of her friends.

Kagome's only connections with the past were the now silent, dark Bone Eaters well, and the only place that brought her empty heart peace...

...Goshinboku.

A ladder now resided against the ancient tree, Kagome sometimes liked to climb her way up, up to the branch that was InuYasha's favorite. There, she could still see the gouges in the bark that his sharp claws had made, likely when he was angry with her and his visit had been strictly about protecting her. InuYasha had seldom left her to her own, even in her own time. Since the incident with the Noh mask he had been convinced that there were still yokai in her time, well hidden for sure, but no less dangerous to a "weak human" like her.

This day Kagome felt too weak to climb, she settled instead for assuming her second favorite position around the tree...slumped against the ancient tree, her cheek and a hand resting on the rough bark.

"Oh InuYasha." she sighed, allowing her tears to fall unhindered. "I miss you so much I can hardly stand to go on breathing."

"Kagome!" Sota's soft voice abruptly interrupted her misery "Don't say such things!"

"Sota..." Her voice was weak, the pain wrapped ever so tightly around her now.

Sota sat down next to her and took her free hand in both of his.

"Kagome...you wouldn't...I mean..." His face was scared, even more scared than it had looked the morning of the Noh mask incident.

"No Sota!" Kagome pulled away from the tree and shook her head vehemently. "Of course not! I would never do that to you, or Mama, or Gramps...or even...even to myself."

Sota's relief was palpable. "It was today, wasn't it?"

Kagome nodded and allowed her head to flop back onto the side of the tree, fresh tears cutting a path through the ones that had dried on her pale cheeks.

Sota squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry Nee-chan. I know how much you miss him."

She nodded softly again. She loved the feel of the rough bark scraping across her cheek. In an odd way, it reminded her of his calloused fingers.

"I think you're going to see him again Nee-chan." Sota smiled

"I don't think so Sota...it's a nice thought, and I wish it were true, but, it's been a year now, and..."

Sota cut her off "Gramps is always saying that few parting's in the world are forever."

"I've never heard him say that."Kagome's head lifted off the tree. "When...?"

"When he hears you crying at night." Sota looked at her with wisdom filled eyes, eyes that reminded her of Miroku.

"It doesn't make sense to me Nee-chan." He shook his head "Why would the Kami take you to InuYasha in the first place if..."

"I shared Kikyo's spirit." she shrugged "I was the only one who was able to free InuYasha from the tree, to fix the damage that Naraku did. It was my destiny to destroy the Shikon no Tama...to finish what Kikyo started."

"But..." Sota looked at Kagome so deeply that she almost felt she was speaking to Sango "You don't really think that was your only destiny do you?"

"My only destiny..." Kagome let her voice trail off, her brows knitted together in confusion. "But I completed the jewel...it is gone now. What could possibly..."

"Nee-chan!" Sota tugged on her hand "I mean InuYasha!"

"But...but he's gone Sota. The well is sealed...he would have come by now if he...was still ali..." She choked on the word "...able to."

"No Kagome! Don't you see?" Sota was starting to get angry with her...Kagome wondered what had possessed him, his impatience reminded her of Shippo.

"The Kami would NOT have brought you and InuYasha together only to rip you apart again!"

"But...but they..."

"I think that there is something you're missing Nee-chan."

"Missing something?" Kagome pondered Sota's words. In a way they made sense, at least more sense than taking her to that place and allow her to fall in love for nothing. "Like what?"

"I don't know what it is, or what you have to do to get back, but I believe that there is _something_, and when you complete it, you will see InuYasha again!"

"Oh Sota, I wish that were true. I want it to be...but..."

"You're afraid it will hurt to hope."

Kagome nodded "I am...what if ..."

"But doesn't it hurt more to live with no hope?"

"Sota!" Kagome was brought up short. When had her little brother become so wise? "You're...you're right. It does hurt more."

What was the worst that could happen if she did allow herself some hope? She couldn't possibly hurt more than she did now.

"Nee-chan, what you should do is do everything...finish school, hang out with your friends..."

"But..."

"Because,you never know what the thing is that you have to do to make the well open again." Sota had turned a bit smug.

Kagome smiled in spite of herself. That comment had been just a little see through. 'Go on, but never stop hoping.'

"Did you have help from Gramps preparing for this talk?"

Sota blushed a little. "Well, maybe...a little."

Kagome put her arms around him and pulled him into her lap, hugging him tightly.

"I love you Sota."

"I love you too, Nee-chan." he kissed her cheek "Now stop squishing me."

Sota slid off her lap and turned to go into the house. Half-way he stopped and turned back.

"Nee-chan?"

"Hmm?" Kagome smiled

"I do believe what I said, about you seeing InuYasha again, even if Gramps did help me with the rest." He waved and turned to run into the house, screaming along the way that he was dying of hunger.

Kagome smiled and allowed her cheek to rub the rough bark of Goshinboku once again. Sota's words ran in her ears.

"_I believe you'll see Inuyasha again"_

Did she dare to believe? Was it possible that her destiny was as yet, unfinished? If so, was reconnecting with InuYasha part of that destiny?

She whispered "Can I believe? Do I have enough strength to put my pain aside, go on with my life, and...and hope?"

Kagome looked up as Gramps stepped out of the shrine and called out a hello and waved. Kagome waved back and blew him a kiss. She would have to thank him later. She got to her feet and touched the ancient hole that had held her beloved for fifty years.

_'What do you think Goshinboku?'_ she thought _'Will I see InuYasha again?'_

"Kagome" Her mother came to the door and waved her inside "Dinner!"

"Coming Mama." she called back and gave Goshinboku a final loving touch. As she turned the wind rustled the leaves above her head and like a whisper she heard a single word, soft, as if carried on the wind five hundred years across time.

"_Believe"_

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-Please review! I am also open to suggestions for other conversations for this series!

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	3. InuYasha: Belief

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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Belief

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Shippo was near to bursting as he ran through InuYasha's forest in search of the hanyou. Not that it was much of a search, when looking for InuYasha these days you had only to look in one of two places, one more likely than the other.

The Bone Eaters well.

As he cleared the trees he found, as he suspected he would, InuYasha just climbing out of the well. That we was climbing out was all the answer Shippo needed...the well was still keeping InuYasha five hundred years from Kagome.

It had been eighteen moons since the well had sealed, and though InuYasha was handling it well, it was obvious even to Shippo that he was broken hearted.

They all were.

InuYasha slid to the ground next to the well. He didn't try to get through the well _everyday_ anymore, but Shippo had followed him enough to know for certain that he tried every other day. Even if he hadn't followed, it would have been easy enough to know which days he tried. InuYasha didn't become cranky or mean as he had in the past, he became quiet and thoughtful, as if he were reliving every memory he had stored in his heart of the girl from the future...the girl he loved.

Normally Shippo wouldn't interfere, but today...

"InuYasha! InuYasha!" He called out as he ran forward "It's happened!"

InuYasha sprang to his feet, instantly on alert. It wasn't like Shippo to bother him here...nobody bothered him when he was here.

"What's happened?" His eyes wrinkled with anger as his hand instantly went to Tessaiga. "Are there yokai in the village?"

"No..." Shippo panted, out of breath from running "No InuYasha, nothing like that."

InuYasha looked like he wanted to pummel the kitsune for startling him like that. After the defeat of Naraku the village had been attacked daily, idiot yokai wanting to prove their worth by defeating the "worthless half-breed" that had felled Naraku. It had gotten so bad that, as Rin was now living there, Sesshomaru had stayed in the village to help defend it.

"What do you think you're doing runt?" InuYasha's fist was in Shippo's face "Running out of the forest and screaming at me that somethings happened!"

Shippo, arms akimbo, glared at InuYasha. There was no fear of InuYasha's huge fist however, InuYasha rarely hit him anymore, it had been like that since the day he had returned with the well and out of gratitude, Shippo did his best not to make InuYasha _want_ to hit him.

"I didn't say that _SOMEthings_ happened stupid!" His mouth however was another story. "I said that _IT'S_ happened."

But InuYasha didn't respond. He had slid back to the ground and as was usual, after his visits to the well, InuYasha was lost in thought.

"InuYasha?" Shippo put his hand on InuYasha's knee. "You're sad again, huh?"

InuYasha sighed and picked Shippo up and sat him in his lap.

"Yeah, guess so."

"I miss her too." Shippo bravely fought the tears. He had seen InuYasha crying a couple times as he sat near the well and it had scared him. Before Kagome left, he had only seen InuYasha cry twice. When Kikyo died, and when he had thought that Kagome had died. Shippo was afraid that his tears meant he was sensing another death on the other side of the well.

"I know you do runt."

"Do you think she will ever come back InuYasha?"

"I want to think so." He shrugged "But its been eighteen moons now...not looking very likely is it?"

Shippo shook his head, a rebellious tear brimmed at his eye and fell.

"Don't cry Shippo. Yokai don't show their tears."

"You cry." Shippo fixed InuYasha with a look "I know you do, I've heard you late at night."

"Well..." InuYasha stumbled for an excuse "I'm a hanyou."

"Nice try InuYasha." Shippo grinned

InuYasha laughed "Thanks."

Shippo sighed "Sometimes, I wish you had never killed Naraku."

"What?!" InuYasha's voice was nearly angry "Why would you say such a thing?"

"Well, when Naraku was still alive, the well worked." He sniffed back more tears "Kagome was able to come back through the well."

"But if Naraku was still alive, we would have lost Miroku by now, probably Sango too." he sighed "Maybe Naraku would have killed all of us...even Kagome. It's better that she's somewhere safe isn't it?"

Shippo nodded "InuYasha...is it okay for me to hope that Kagome comes back someday? Even if it isn't very likely anymore?"

"Of course it is Shippo."

"So, if it's okay for me to hope, doesn't it mean that it's okay for you to hope too?"

"I haven't stopped hoping." He sighed deeply "I pray to the kami everyday that she will come back to me...to us."

"Maybe hoping isn't enough." Shippo's face was intense with thought. "Maybe we have to believe to make the well open again."

InuYasha shrugged. It was a nice idea, even if it was very unlikely. Still, he didn't want to encourage something that would very possibly hurt Shippo in the end.

"Isn't it okay to believe?" Shippo looked at him with huge, sad eyes.

InuYasha didn't want to answer, he knew for a fact that believing could hurt very much. How long had he held to the belief that he was worthless? In the beginning his belief and trust in Kikyo had nearly gotten Kagome killed by his former love.

But this was different. This was a kind of belief that was unfamiliar, trusting in an inanimate object to do the right thing. But was the well inanimate? Hadn't it shown before that it had it's own heart and soul? Hadn't it opened up once and allowed Kagome through?

He once would have said it was the jewel that did that, now he knew better. The heart of Shikon no Tama had been evil and selfish, darker than even Naraku himself. It would never have brought Kagome the well, knowing it would have led to it's destruction.

No, it was the well that had brought Kagome to this time and place...to him, knowing that he had needed her to set him free and put things right, even to heal his heart. That being the case, couldn't the well know how desperately InuYasha needed her still? Like the time that Magatsuhi had blocked Kagome's spiritual powers, was it waiting for some thing before it could bring her back? Like destroying Magatsuhi had unsealed Kagome's spiritual powers...would some occurance reopen the well?

Was it, as Shippo thought, his needing to believe? If that was the case, was it his disbelief that was keeping her from returning?

"I think..." InuYasha smiled "I think maybe it is okay for you to believe Shippo."

Shippo smiled and threw his tiny arms around InuYasha's neck, hugging him fiercely.

"Do you believe too InuYasha?"

"I think I am starting to." He hugged the kitsune back " Yeah, I think so."

Shippo laughed then and InuYasha couldn't help but laugh with him.

"Shippo, what _did_ you come tearing out here for anyway?"

"Oh hell, I totally forgot! It's Sango!"Shippo's eyes went wide with excitement. "She had the babies!"

InuYasha's eyes lit and a huge grin crossed his face "Babies?"

"Two of them! Girls!"

"Miroku has twin girls?" InuYasha nearly fell over he was laughing so hard and happy tears coursed down his face. "How totally fitting!" He chortled "That old lecher with _daughters_!"

Shippo laughed until he fell off InuYasha's knee to the ground.

InuYasha sprung to his feet, dragging the kitsune up with him and put him on his shoulder.

"C'mon Shippo, I gotta see this for myself." He glanced at the well a final time, a wistful feeling twinged in his heart for a second as he wished that Kagome was here to share this moment with him.

He turned away from the well, a small smile playing on his lips.

_'She will be.'_ He began to run through the forest.

_'One day, Kagome will come back to me.'_

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	4. Kagome: Live

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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Three Years

Live

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Kagome glared into the bowl of half-eaten ramen...it wasn't working anymore. For the past two years she had been able to find slight solace in amercing herself into the things that InuYasha had loved...things like potato chips, the strawberry shampoo that she used and he like the smell of...and ramen...always ramen.

But now, on the second blackiversary of the well sealing she had once again found herself unable to find an once of relief. Kagome refused to call it an anniversary...that word was meant for happy milestones, for weddings, and class reunions.

There was nothing at all happy about the day that she had been torn away from InuYasha.

It had been two years ago today...two years since she had heard his voice, since he had carried her on his back while his long silver hair blew around her face, two years since Kagome Higurashi had smiled a real smile or laughed from the heart.

Recently, Mama and Ojii had begun to question her about what she would do when she finished school in the spring and the answer that always came first and foremost to her mind was that, were it up to her, she would marry InuYasha and return to the past forever.

Though she knew it would hurt her family, the only place she longed to be was at his side and the feeling only grew stronger the longer they were apart.

"If your not going to eat that..." Kagome looked up to find Ojii standing in the doorway to the kitchen...the same doorway that InuYasha had come through when he came to drag her back to the past for the very first time.

"No." She said sadly as she slid the bowl across the table. "You can have it Ojii."

Ojii slid a chair out and sat across from her.

"So..." he began, his gruff voice had softened slightly as he noticed how close his granddaughter was to tears. "It's that time again is it?"

Kagome nodded silently and stared out the window at Goshinboku.

"Two years is it?"

"Yes."

"And once again you seem to have given up all hope."

Kagome sighed and continued to stare.

"Well I must say Kagome, InuYasha would be very disappointed in you."

Kagome's gaze shifted to the old man across from her. "What do you mean?"

"Seems to me, young lady, that the thing InuYasha loved most about you was your spirit." He shoveled another huge wad of noodles into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.

"So?"

"So?" He chuckled "So where's that spirit now?"

"But...Ojii." Kagome sniffled "I miss him!"

"And so you've decided it's okay to give yourself up to the darkness, to just let your spirit die." He put another wad of ramen into his mouth as Kagome glared at him.

"I have not."

"Oh but you have young lady." He sniffed angrily as he shoved the empty bowl aside "You walk about like you were a zombie, you act like you've died."

Kagome's glare intensified "I..."

"When is the last time you went out with those friends of yours?"

"But..."

"When was the last time you played with Buyo or went for a walk with your mama and Sota?"

Kagome thought about what he'd said. It had been awhile since she had gone anywhere with her friends...but they always seemed to shift the conversation back to asking her whatever happened to her "Jealous, violent gang boyfriend" and as for Mama and Sota...they had stopped asking her to join them.

"And have you dated anyone since you started school?"

"Really Ojii!" Kagome rolled her eyes "That's personal!"

Besides, wasn't the purpose of dating to meet someone you could love? Kagome had already met the person she was meant to love...and he had been taken away from her. Kagome stood and turned from the table.

"InuYasha hated to see you sad." he said quietly "It would make him sad if he saw how you are now."

"Oh Ojii!" Kagome felt a sob thunder up her throat and break free as she threw herself into Ojii's open arms "I miss him so much!"

Kagome sank down onto her knees on the floor next to Ojii's chair while he stroked her hair gently with his gnarled hands.

"I know you do Koishii." He sighed "I know."

"When I think of never seeing him again..." Kagome was sobbing now "It's been two whole years...I don't think I'm ever going to see him again Ojii!"

"Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow Kagome. But you can't just give up living because you've lost someone that you love."

"But...Ojii..."

"What if I had given up, when your grandmother died? Or your mother when she lost your papa? At least you know that InuYasha is somewhere safe and alive. Ne?"

"Well, alive in his time..."Kagome sat back and wiped her face "But...probably not in ours."

"That's true." Ojii nodded "But the well opened once and allowed you to meet, you must never give up hope that it will one day open again."

"But it hurts to hope and have it not come true."

She stared at her hands, at old scars that she had acquired in the past. There was a burn scar on the back of her right hand where she had gotten too close when putting fish on the fire, and a cut where she had accidentally cut herself with the tip of one of her arrows when she was first learning how to shoot. She lifted her hand and touched the top of her arm...the slightly raised scars from when InuYasha had clawed her during the final battle with Naraku when his full Yokai form had briefly taken control. Her body was like a scrapbook of their time together.

"I know it's hard Koishii." Ojii sighed "But you must not let your heart be consumed in sadness, you mustn't give in to the darkness of your grief."

"Is that what I've been doing?" Kagome sniffed and looked at him as he nodded.

"I believe Kagome, that you and InuYasha will meet again." he nodded more firmly "I believe that if YOU believe, your spirit will make it happen, but how can your spirit fight when you live in the darkness of despair?"

_'How indeed?' _Kagome thought to herself. Ojii was right...she had been letting her spirit die, and even more so, InuYasha would hate what she was letting herself become.

"What do I do Ojii?"

He smiled and turned in his chair to face his granddaughter. He took her face into gentle hands and lifted her face to his.

"You _LIVE_ young lady." he smiled and kissed her forehead. "You live."

Ojii dropped his hands and stood, then he walked out the back door to return to his work at the shrine. Kagome got to her feet and took the empty bowl to the sink. She washed it out and put it in the drainer to dry, then allowed her gaze to return to Goshinboku.

_'Live' _she thought _'Just live.'_

She looked out at the tree of ages, it's leaves just beginning to turn into a riot of fall color. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, then searched through her phone book for Yuka's phone number and hit call.

_'Live.'_ she took a deep breath_ 'I think I can manage that.'_

She smiled softly as Yuka answered on the first ring.

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	5. InuYasha: InuYasha

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-A/N: Koishii: Beloved

Thirty moons : 2 ½ years.

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Three Years

InuYasha

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Thirty moons have come and gone since I have last seen her...my best friend, my Koishii, my Kagome.

For the others, life goes on. Kaede has become obsessed with documenting everything that has happened since Kagome first came up until now. I think she is doing it for Kagome, so she can know what happened to all of us through reading ancient scrolls. Weve built a new shrine here, since the old one was destroyed by Naraku, and I didn't realize until it was finished but it is built now in the exact spot where the shrine sits in Kagome's time. It's a small thing, I know, but it is still a link to her.

Mirkoku and Sango just announced that they have a new baby on the way, it will come in the spring. I don't admit it to anyone, but their daughters own a pieve of my heart. I can't wait to hear them call me Uncle, as Miroku and Sango have told me they will. Kohauku will be leaving after the new moon, to work as a yokai slayer. Rins still in the village and Sesshomaru comes by frequently. He seemed a bit dissapointed to learn that Kohauku is leaving. I think he liked having him watch over Rin, almost as if he planned for them to marry someday, when they both come of age.

Shippo is growing too, he went up another two levels at his last Kitsune exam. Kagome would be so proud of him.

Kagome...how I miss her.

I've stopped coming to the well everyday now, not because I wanted to, but because that damn Kitsune kept following me there. I never saw him, but I heard him, crying when he saw that I had once again come out alone.

Even so, I can't stay away totally. I go every three days now, careful to sneak out while he is sleeping. I've been reasonably successful, he only follows me about half the time now. I don't know who he thinks he's fooling, hiding high up in threes. Doesn't he know by now that my nose can pick up his scent, the scent of the salt in his tears? Doesn't he know after all this time that my ears can hear his sniffles as he struggles to try not to cry?

Sometimes I wish that he would come out from hiding and talk to me. He did once, a long time ago, but that was only because he was bringing me the news that Miroku and Sango's daughters had been born. Maybe if he realized how much his words had made me feel better that day he would come out again.

I know the others, Kaede, Sango and Miroku, wonder why I still do it. Why I continue to tear the scabs off my wounds every three days. I wonder sometimes myself. Why do I try again and again when the bone eaters well continues to rejects me? I've asked myself this for many moons now, and the only reason I can come up with is; Kagome never gave up on me, so I can't give up on her.

I gave her so many opportunities, so many reasons, to turn her back on me and walk away forever. Once, I even let her go. I'd planned to say goodbye to her forever and went to find her, but she found me first. And even though she knew I could never give her what she gave to me, even knowing that my life belonged to someone else, someone that I was determined to die with, Kagome came back to me.

But I never once dragged her back here. Well, okay, maybe a time or two. But that was only because she wanted to come anyway. I mean, she was determined to finish school, so she had to stay home sometimes and actually go. But she never once told me she loved going to school, while she often told me she loved sitting with me in the dark and watching the stars.

I loved it too.

I always felt so calm around her, my heart was always at peace...unless one of Naraku's minions or some other yokai was in the process of trying to tear all of us apart. I never felt that peace around Kikyo, even before Naraku tore us apart. I guess I always sensed that there was something waiting under the surface for me and Kikyo, something standing by for the perfect moment to jump between us and bring us apart. Looking back, I think I knew, even as we made plans for me to use the shikon no tama to become human, that Kikyo and I would never be together as we planned.

Of course I know now that even if we had, our time together would have been incredibly short. The nature of the jewel did not allow for happily ever after. I sometimes wonder if we would have even lasted the day, had I successfully become human. Kikyo and I both had too many enemies. Surely word would have reached Sesshomaru before long and he would have killed me on principle.

So I guess, in a weird way, I am grateful that I ended up pinned to Goshinboku. I am so incredibly thankful for the magic that brought Kagome into my life, even as I curse it for taking her away from me. I can say this calmly now, today is one of my better days. Often I would dearly love to shred the well with my claws for taking the person from my life who meant more than any other.

But if I did that, then all of my hope would be gone.

In the early days, the others encouraged me to hope, to pray that Kagome would return to me. They still tell me that I should continue to hope, but now and then I catch them watching me with concern on their faces as I start my journey to the well. I know in my heart that they have all lost hope of ever seeing Kagome again, all but Shippo. But then, Shippo _is_ just a child, a stubborn one at that.

Still, maybe it's because I've known Shippo longer than Miroku or Sango, or maybe its because Kaede looks at the world with the weariness of one who's lived a long time and seen so many peoples dreams die, but I can't help feeling encouraged by his faith that Kagome will one day return.

But whether she returns tomorrow, thirty moons from now, or if I have to wait until enough days come to bring me to her time...I will be waiting for her.

I have decided...I will see my Kagome, my best friend, my Koishii, again. And when I do, I will tell her what I should have told her so many, many moons ago...

...That I love her.

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	6. Kagome: Kagome

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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Three Years:

Kagome

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It's been so long...

It's been so very, very long since I last saw InuYasha. Since the last time I felt whole.

Ojii told me once that I needed to go on, to live. Sota told me that too...that maybe there was something I needed to do, something I needed to accomplish before the well would open up once again and return me to the place where I know in my heart that I belong. The only place I feel content and at peace...

...at InuYasha's side.

So I have done just that. I've gone on living, even though at times it feels like an empty, futile act. I've spent time with my family and friends, I've graduated from high school and even applied to university, though I've already decided not to go.

All this time I have never completely given up hope that I will someday return. Even during the black times when my hope was as thin as a fine silk thread. I've kept on because it was that hope that sustained me, that hope gave me a reason to go on breathing.

Ayume, Yuka and Eri are going to the same University in Osaka. Hojo is already planning to marry at the end of summer, I've met her, she is a lovely girl. Sota will be beginning high school. Mama has begun a job and is dating someone now, a very nice man she met when he came to visit the shrine.

I feel as if I am the only person who is all alone in the world. All of my friends are starting to live their tomorrows but I am forever stuck...stuck in the present...or rather, stuck in the past.

I wonder about them all the time. I try to imagine what they might be doing now that Naraku is dead and they are free to live their lives. Did Miroku and Sango marry as they had planned? Do they have children now and if so, how many? Has Kohauku healed from the pain inflicted on him by Naraku?

So many, many unanswered questions...Is Rin still at Sesshomaru's side? Has Shippo continued with his kitsune exams? What rank is he now? Is Kaede well?

And always there are the questions about InuYasha. Have he and Sesshomaru found peace? Is he happy? Is he finally free of his pain from his past with Kikyo now that Naraku is dead? Does he smile and laugh now the way I always wished he would?

And then there is the biggest question of all; what was the point of taking me to him, of allowing me to fall in love with him, when fate only planned to tear us apart?

I still miss them all so much. I miss the way Shippo use to hug me and sleeping with him cuddled up to me when it was cold at night. I miss Miroku's sense of humor, his silly jokes and the way I was always able to tell Sango everything I was thinking and feeling. I miss Kaede's wisdom and advice. And even though it sounds funny, I miss Kikyo too. I learned so much from her, how to forgive and how to love those that it would be easier to hate. In so many ways she was like my mentor, driving me to do my best and go on and learn something new everyday.

And I miss InuYasha. So many things...the way it felt to ride on his back as he ran through the lush, green forest. The way his soft silver hair felt and smelled as it brushed against my face as he ran... a combination of fresh air, green grass and tree sap.

So many, many things. His smile, his eyes, the feel of his hands on the back of my legs when he carried me. The sound of his voice, his passion to do the right thing and his laugh.. I so miss his laugh.

But even above all of that, what I miss the most is the way I felt when I was with him. Like nothing was impossible, like as long as I was with him, everything would be okay...always...always.

I find myself confused so much lately. In a single breath I thank the kami for taking me to meet him, and cursing them for taking him from me. I suppose I should be glad that I ever got to know him at all. How boring my life would have been if there had never been an InuYasha. Is it selfish for me to feel so angry about our being forced to part? I suppose it is. But also it is only natural to feel anger over loss. Mama told me she was angry for a long time after she lost Papa. She said that loss is a process, that we can't expect to heal over night.

But I don't want to heal! I'm afraid...afraid that healing will mean forgetting and I never, ever, want to forget! I want to remember it all...the feel of Shippo's hair brushing my cheek as he slept, Miroku's laugh and Sango's smile! I want to remember every wise word Kaede ever spoke! I want to remember the one time Kikyo genuinely smiled at me and the way she held my hand before she died!

Mostly, I want to remember InuYasha...I want to remember the sound of his voice, the feel of his heart beating under my cheek when he held me! I want to remember the look in his eyes when he almost kissed me and how wonderful his voice sounded when he came to me in the darkness of hell!

I want to remember! Even if it means keeping the pain alive in my heart, I want to remember him...all of him!

And that's why I can't move on to tomorrow. After all...how can I live in tomorrow, when my heart...my soul... was left in the past with InuYasha?

Yuka, Eri and Ayume always talk about how they've dreamed since they were little girls about meeting their own special prince. How he will come and sweep them off their feet and carry them off into the sunset. I've already lived that dream, I was carried through a well and found my prince pinned to a sacred tree. And like in a fairy tale, I woke him from an enchanted sleep.

We almost came apart so many times. I left him once but in the end, I returned to his side. I promised myself that day, that I would never leave him again and I didn't...not until fate tore me away.

But still, I hold onto my hope. I hold onto it as tightly as I hold onto my memories, even though hoping causes me pain. I hang on because my hope is all that I have left.

I still wonder...what became of InuYasha? Did he die? Has he come to my time but has he not come to me because he found someone to love? I use to prefer the thought of his being dead, the thought of him with someone else was just too terrible to bear. But that's not the case anymore. If he is still alive somewhere in my time, I want him to be living a joyful life. I want for him to have found someone wonderful and to be surrounded by family. Children and grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

I want, more than anything else, for him to be happy. Even as his loss causes me pain.

I want InuYasha to be happy.

Every year I make a pilgrimage back to the well at the time of day when InuYasha was taken from me. I stare down into the well and I speak all of my hopes and dreams into it. The time has come again as today marks the day.

Three years have passed since InuYasha was taken from me. Once again I stare into the dark, silent well. The well that was closed because of my happiness to have returned home from the darkness of hell.

Oh InuYasha...I've thought about you all time since then.

Once again I'm filled with regret and pain, living as I do in a world that I don't belong in.

A world without InuYasha.

My tears fall into the empty bone eaters well as my heart screams the words. My entire body sears with white-hot burning pain and the truth comes forth...truth of my heart, truth of my soul.

The only truth that matters to me anymore... My only hope for survival.

InuYasha...I want to be with you!

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	7. In Others Eyes: Part I

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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Three Years:

In Others Eyes

Part One

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-_**Kaede=**_

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Three years have passed since that time, still, I remember the day as if it had just been...the day that InuYasha returned from three days in the darkness of hell without Kagome.

I never had children of my own, but Kagome was the closest I can imagine to having a daughter of my own. She was intelligent, and brave. Full to overflowing with youthful energy and spirit. It's impossible to imagine not loving the girl. Kagome came here and stole all of our hearts...but none more than InuYasha.

And then, she was gone.

It's broken my heart, watching him mourn her loss all this time. I always thought his deepest regrets would concern my sister Kikyo, but I was wrong. He confided in me not long after Kagome was lost to him that his deepest regret was never having told Kagome that he loved her, and he often wondered if, had she known, things might have turned out differently.

He was happy to have returned her to her family, so happy that he wonders now if his feelings might have had something to do with the well closing...as if it sensed his relief and mistook it for his not wanting her to return to him, now that her mission on our side of time was completed.

I can't tell him what closed the well, even though after all this time he still ponders that question as frequent as he did in the days immediately after. Miroku and I have discussed it at great length. Common sense tells us that the well opened with the help of the the shikon no tama, so that the things that went wrong could be put right...and, so Kagome could free InuYasha from Goshinboku. Then, once her mission was complete, the well sent her back home. There's a flaw in this reasoning though. Surely, the evil spirit of the tama knew that if Kagome came, she could find a way to destroy it forever. So why would the evil in the jewel have allowed the well to open ? The truth is, we are just as clueless as to why it closed as we are to the reason why it opened in the first place.

Pondering all this leaves me with a horrible, empty feeling. Even if we figured out the truth tomorrow, it wouldn't change anything. It wouldn't erase the three years we have mourned Kagome's loss. It wouldn't erase the millions of tears young Shippo has shed, or change the fact that Sango missed having her best friend at her side when her daughters were born. It won't erase the sadness and loneliness that has been my constant companion these past three years.

Answers won't change the fact that I feel sad, and helpless each time I see InuYasha go to the well only to return alone, and I am left wishing so very much that I had the magic that would heal his broken heart, the hanyou that I love as if he were my son.

The only thing that can change anything, would be for the well to reopen, and for it to return our Kagome to our side.

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_**Sango**_

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I have so much to be happy for, my husbands life, our beautiful daughters and the new child who will be born any day now, my brothers survival...yet, I feel a space of terrible emptiness, lodged deep in my heart. I don't have to look far to understand the reason for it's obvious...I miss my best friend, my sister, Kagome.

Kagome came to me during the darkest time of my life. When I was sure that I had lost everything and only my desire to destroy the one who took it from me kept me alive ...the one who I thought was InuYasha.

I thank the gods now that I was wrong, for the fact that I didn't succeed in my mission to kill him. If I had, I would never have known my husband, sweet little Shippo or InuYasha and Kagome. They became my new family And even though I betrayed them in the process, even though Kohaku nearly killed Kagome, they stood by me and they promised to do all in their power to free my brother from Naraku's grasp.

At the heart of it all was Kagome, a sweet, strange girl with ideas and tools that mystified the mind. She always understood, even when I didn't understand myself, particularly in matters concerning my growing love for the man who became my husband.

Even after three years I still think about her everyday. I wonder if she misses me as much as I miss her, if she has found a new friend, someone in her time that she can talk to about the things she use to talk to me about. I realize that she probably has, Kagome was always making new friends in the villages we passed. But I can't help a stab of jealousy as I wish so much that it was me she was sharing her heart with.

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Shippo

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Sometimes when I look back on my short life I feel so angry. Angry that mama and papa were killed, angry that I lost my family and my innocence in such a cruel way. And of course, I am angry that Kagome was taken away from me when the bone eaters well sealed, leaving me behind to miss her so much that I feel like my heart will never stop hurting.

Kagome was like a mama, a big sister, and a best friend, all rolled into one person. Even now, after three years, I still feel the emptiness inside me and my heart hurts so much that I think the pain will burn me to a cinder, like Hitan tried to do.

InuYasha told me once that it was okay to go on hoping that Kagome would one day return. I took him at his word, even though I could tell just by looking at him that he was losing his hope even as he encouraged me to gp on believing.

Still, my life has gone on, even without Kagome. I've gone up nine ranks in the Kitsune exams since she left. I know Kagome would be proud of me and thats why I work so hard, striving to do my best so that someday if...when...she returns, she will have a reason to look at me with pride. To smile, laugh, and hug me so tight that I feel like my ribs are about to shatter.

The way that she use to hug me everyday...the way I have only been hugged once in three years and by the most unlikely source of all...InuYasha.

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_**Sesshomaru**_

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I have no choice but to visit frequently the village near Musashi. There is a young lady there who holds this Sesshomaru's heart in the palm of her tiny hand, but, if I were to be honest, I would have to admit that she isn't the only reason I return.

I return because my brother resides there as well, and yet, he is more and more becoming a shell of the hanyou he once was. Oh yes, on the outside he is as cocky and crass as ever. His spirit _seems_ strong, as if he would gladly take on the world should it give him the opportunity to show off the fang of our father that he wields so well and with such pride.

But this Sesshomaru, and the others who are his friends, know different. My brother is slowly dying inside, his spirit is shrinking with each passing moon. InuYasha mourns the one he loves, the one who was taken from him by a cruel act of fate, the same fate that brought her to him.

What is perhaps the most surprising thing of all is the way this Sesshomaru feels about his brothers pain. I am filled with a enigmatic ache for my brothers suffering. I find myself longing to be able to utter words that will bring comfort, even though I know no such words exist. I feel angry that even time is not destined to work as a salve. My brothers sadness grows with each sunrise that finds him separated from the young miko, even though by now surely a thousand have come and gone.

The only thing that can save InuYasha, is her...his Kagome.

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_**Miroku**_

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I can't help but look around me and feel that I have been incredibly blessed. Four years ago I was alone, traveling through my homeland searching for something...anything...that would lead me to a way to break my families curse. The Kazaana...a void of wind that I held in the palm of my hand, a void that was meant to end my life.

I stayed alone by design, moving from village to village to ply my trade and make a living. Roaming from one nameless, faceless woman to another to sate my baser desires and needs. None of them mattered to me and despite my frequent requests for a woman who would bear me a child I was always extremely careful to prevent that very thing from happening. Why? Because I was deathly afraid that the woman would bear a son, a son to whom I would pass on the curse put upon my fathers by Naraku.

It was unthinkable to me then, that I would one day have friends, a wife, two beautiful daughters, and a friendly village to call home. But the gods smiled on me. I have all of that and more, and it is because of _her_.

The truly sad thing is that Kagome can't be here to share in all my happiness. The ancient well that brought her to us has rebelled, taking her from all of us... from the one who loves her, the one she loves...InuYasha.

For a long time all of us, myself included, encouraged him to hope...to believe that one day she would return to us...return to him. Once, we watched hopefully as he left the village to make his pilgrimage to the bone eaters well. Back then, there was a stab of pain each time he returned alone. Now, the pain comes when we watch him leave...after all this time, we already know what the outcome will be. InuYasha will once again return alone...just as he has each time over the past three years.

It seems to me that he has lost his heart. The more time that passes it becomes more noticeable as the light in his eyes is fading, the light that his belief in Kagome's return gives him. I've wondered at times if I shouldn't try to stop him, to talk to him and see if I can't get him to let her go, to end his visits to the well. But I don't think I will ever be able to do that. It's his hope that keeps him alive, his stubborn refusal to give up.

I'd like to believe that Kagome will return to us one day, I miss her too...she was like a sister, someone I could help protect and take care of. I know her absence is still greatly felt by my wife, and Kaede too.

But it's been three years.

Once, about a year after the well took Kagome away I followed Inuyasha, meaning to speak to him of giving up his trips to the well. Instead, I stood hidden in the high grass, watching and listening because InuYasha wasn't the only one who had chosen that night to visit.

InuYasha had found Shippo, sitting next to the well and crying his heart out. InuYasha attempted to console him, doing everything in his power to stop the young kitsune's tears. Instead, Shippo grew angry, and he screamed out the words...

"I wish Kagome had never come at all!"

I winced, I imagined that statement would bring on InuYasha's temper and even though he rarely hit the boy anymore, I expected he would receive the biggest thumping that he had received in a long, long time.

I was wrong.

Instead, InuYasha sat down, picked Shippo up in his arms and hugged him so tight I thought his lungs might burst. Then, he sat him on his lap and asked...

"Shippo..." he said softly "Would you really rather you had never known Kagome...to have never known her smile, or her laugh or her hugs? Would you really rather give all that up in exchange for missing her now?"

Shippo turned around and looked at him, then he shook his head before falling back into InuYasha's chest to cry.

I understand how they feel. As sad as her loss has made me... losing her isn't a tragedy. To have never heard her laugh, or seen her smile...to have never felt her caring warmth and the bright sunshine that she brought into all of our lives...

To have never known the girl named Kagome...

...THAT would have been a tragedy.

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	8. In Others Eyes: Part II

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-A/N: I've strayed from canon here a great deal...I couldn't help it...I just had to inject a little of what I hope happened in InuYasha and Kagome's life. I also hope, you'll all be able to guess who the mysterious man in white is! *Wink*

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Three Years

In Others Eyes

Part II

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**_Grandpa_**

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When I look back over the many many years of my life often I can see places where I wish I could go back and do it over again. I wish I had been able to talk my wife into going to the doctor sooner, so that the cancer that killed her might have been caught in time. I wish that I had asked my son to delay his trip, so he wouldn't have been on the train that day when it derailed and he was killed.

Somedays, I even wish that I had done a better job of sealing the well that took my granddaughter away from us.

The last is a selfish wish. I know this, but still, I can't _help_ but be a little selfish. At my age I'd like to think I had earned the right to think of myself a little.

My granddaughter has gone now, off to live the life that she loved so much, the life that, for three years had been stolen from her. Even as I make my selfish wish, I can't help but remember the pain Kagome suffered during that time. At times, I became so terribly afraid that she might do something horrible, like end her life. As each anniversary of the day the well closed passed, I watched on helplessly while she struggled to hold on and it broke my heart.

On the day when my daughter in law agreed to move in with me I made a promise to her, that I would protect her and my grandchildren with every bit of my strength. To that end, I have done all I could. Who would have known that the very place that was meant to shelter them held a secret? The secret of the Bone Eaters Well. How could I have known on the day that I made that promise that the old well would one day take my granddaughter away from us forever?

But I should have known, should have seen the day that _HE_ arrived that our remaining time with her was short. InuYasha, the hanyou who stole my granddaughters heart, came into our lives in a blaze of foul insults (directed at my granddaughter!) and anger and nothing was ever the same again.

Still, I found myself helping her to live this other life. Coming up with ailment after ailment to excuse her near constant absence from school, lying to her friends and that Hojo character who was so besotted with her. All to cover up our families secret...that Kagome was living two lives.

I tried to pretend, to act as if I didn't realize that after a time, the other life became so much more important to her than the life she lived here with us. More and more her only topic of conversation began to be how she was now witness to the stories I had often told her of before she ever passed through the well. Stories that, when coming from my mouth, Kagome had yawned through, and then promptly forgotten. Perhaps it was living them that made the difference, or more likely, living them with _him_, that made them so much more interesting.

Whatever the reason, Kagome became like a stranger in our world. She returned only to refresh her supplies, to have the occasional serving of oden, and to pick up her ever growing pile of school work. School work that she no longer did for herself, to further herself academically, but so she could graduate and make her mother and I happy.

During the three years Kagome was forced to live in this world, it was obvious to all of us that Kagome was no longer happy here... so perhaps it is best that she left it behind.

I only wish that our Kagome hadn't had to leave us behind as well.

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**_Sota_**

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I have really great friends, but, sometimes they really annoy the hell out of me. Like my best friend, Taji. He actually asked me to introduce him to my "hot" sister the other day.

Okay first, no guy wants to be told that his sister is "hot". That's just plain nasty. Second, his saying that made me sad, because my sister is no longer here. And she isn't a Yankee either, like he insinuated. That just pissed me off. Where does he get off thinking that, just because Kagome went off to get married, that she is a Yankee?

Is it so hard to believe that Kagome had been lucky enough to meet the love of her life without having to wait another five or ten years?

No, Kagome was lucky. She met the guy who would be her husband when she was only fifteen. She traveled side by side with him for over a year, fighting things that I can't even begin to imagine, even though she told me about every one of them. Or, almost every one. I suspect she held a lot back because she didn't want to worry me. I know she came close to dying more than once during the time that she and InuYasha tracked Naraku, trying to find a way to destroy him.

They actually mentioned InuYasha and my sister in one of my classes last year, in literature when we studied Japanese legends. Of course, they didn't mention them by name. It was the legend of the Hanyou and his Miko, who teamed up with a Tijiaya and a Monk to battle an evil 'god'. I nearly laughed, imagining just what InuYasha would have said about Naraku being referred to as a god. I am quite sure that I am the only one in my class who knew every falsie in the story, and I had to be careful when we were quizzed on it. Imagine, giving the right answers and marked off for it.

Kagome would have laughed over how ridiculous it was. Particularly the part where they said the Miko and Hanyou parted ways and never saw each other again.

Because InuYasha and my sister DID see each other again. It took three years, but they did...they DID see each other again. I remember the day that Kagome made her last trip through the well. I came home from school and mama saw me. She yelled at me to go to the hall and bring the backpack that Kagome always had taken with her to the other side.

After I came back, backpack in hand, I went into the well shrine and it was filled with the familiar blue light. I handed Kagome the backpack and then she hugged me, and grandpa, and then mama...and then, she was gone. Gone back to the world that she loved, back to the one she loved....

InuYasha.

I could say that I don't miss her, I miss her like mad. Kagome is my only sister...that's why I lied to her that day when I spoke to her under Goshinboku. She asked me if it had been Grandpa who'd helped me prepare for our talk, but it wasn't. It was him, the strange man I met one day coming home from school. He wore a white suit and had really long silver hair and honey colored eyes...the exact same color as InuYasha...but this wasn't InuYasha. He wore a long silver chain and something that looked like a silver fang dangled from the end of it.

He told me that he knew my sisters future and he wished for me to go to her and reassure her that she and InuYasha would one day be reunited. When I asked who he was he refused to tell me, only saying that he was someone who loved Kagome and didn't wish to see her suffer needlessly. He said that I was not to tell her of meeting him, only that she and InuYasha would be together again, that she needed to complete her life here before she could return to her life there.

And then, he was gone.

So I turned back and returned home, where I found Kagome sitting miserably under Goshinboku. And I told her of what the man had said, phrasing it all in the way he had told me to. It worked, it gave Kagome hope and she began to believe. She started living again, even though she wore her pain, always, lurking just under the surface.

The man never came to me again, to this day I have no idea who he was, only that I am thankful for the man who said he loved my sister. Because of him I was able to give her hope, hope that carried her through until the day the well opened up again and let her through.

Kagome was...is...the best sister a guy could ask for and I miss her everyday. Mama says we should never give up hope of ever seeing Kagome again. She says that if there was enough magic in the world to return Kagome to the one she loved, then there should be enough magic to return Kagome and InuYasha to the family that loves them...someday.

Someday.

Hanging onto her hope worked for my sister, so, I guess I will trust it to work for me too.

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**_Mama_**

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Letting my little girl go was the hardest thing I ever did in my life. But, I am sustained by the knowledge that it was the right thing to do.

Kagome was miserable here. Stuck in a time that she no longer belonged in, a time that she was slowly becoming to hate. Who could blame her? Her heart and soul lived in a time that was five hundred years before ours, with InuYasha, the person she was born to love.

But even knowing this, I might not have been able to let her go had it not been for the man who came to me as I walked to the market. He wouldn't tell me his name, only that he was someone who loved my daughter. He said that a time was coming soon where I would have to chose between my own happiness and my daughters. Very soon, Kagome would be offered a chance to return to the one she loved, and it would be my heart that decided for her. I understood what he meant without explanation. I knew beyond a doubt that Kagome would never go back to InuYasha without my blessing.

He smiled and took my hand, then he said something that made my decision easier.

"I can promise you Higurashi-san, even if you let go of her now, you will see Kagome again. I can not tell you when, or where, but, she will return to you."

And so, that night I packed a bag for my Kagome. Things that I knew she would want to keep with her always. An album of family pictures, a small bit of her fathers ashes, the ancient miko clothing that she had worn home the first time she returned through the well. And there were other things, a small supply of ramen, for InuYasha. A little candy for Shippo, and, her father and my wedding rings, along with a note asking her that she and InuYasha use them with as much love as her father and I had.

The next day, she was gone, gone back to InuYasha. I let her go with a full heart. Knowing, thanks to my strange visitor, that I will one day see my baby girl again.

For three long years Kagome kept a vigil at the ancient tree. Now, I have taken her place. Waiting...always waiting, for the day my baby returns to me.

My only hope, is that it will be soon.

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**-Next Part-**

**It's taken three years and eight chapters...**

**...At long last...**

**The reunion of InuYasha and Kagome!**

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	9. InuYasha and Kagome:Reunion and Epilogue

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-Disclaimer: InuYasha is the property of Rumiko Takahashi

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-This entry in Three Years is dedicated to my dear, dear, long suffering Beta Crimsonangel23 with all my wishes for an extremely Happy (and profitable) Birthday! Thanks for putting up with the angst, delays, typos and dreadful grammar mistakes including my ever frequent YOU'RE YOUR THEIR THERE THEY'RE sccrewing-upedness.

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-Nee-chan=Sister

Chan, Sama= Honorifics (kind of like our Mr. Mrs. Ms.)

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Three Years

Reunions

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Kagome gasped, her eyes huge as the tiny speck of blue appeared in the bottom of the bone eaters well.

"Kagome?" Mrs. Higurashi pushed the door open and Kagome turned to her.

"Mama..." She whispered, then turned back to the well where the speck was growing steadily larger.

"Mama...the well..." Kagome pointed "Look..."

Mrs. Higurashi stepped to the side of the well and looked down. She couldn't say she was surprised, after all, it had been just the day before that the man in white had appeared to her. She had known this was coming, she just didn't expect it so soon.

In the distance Sota loudly announced his arrival home.

"Sota!" Mrs. Higurashi yelled as he passed the shrine. The door slid open and he poked his head through. "Quickly, in the hall, go get Kagome's bag."

"Kagome's bag?" He questioned

"Hurry Sota" His mother urged "We might not have much time."

The boy ran off, his face replaced moments later by Grandfather.

"What's all this commotion?" He asked, his wrinkled face worried.

"The time has come." Mrs. Higurashi smiled and put her hand on Kagome's face. "It's time for Kagome to go and live the life _she_ wishes to live."

"Mama!" Kagome threw herself into her mothers arms "I want to go...I want to so much...but, what about you?"

Mrs. Higurashi remembered the words of the stranger from the day before.

"_I can promise you Higurashi-san, even if you let go of her now, you will see Kagome again. I can not tell you when, or where, but, she will return to you."_

"You've stayed here for three years Kagome. You finished school for grandpa and I... now, it's time for you to begin the life YOU want." She smiled and cupped Kagome's cheeks in her hands "I want you to be happy Kagome. Even if that means losing you for a while."

"Oh Mama!" Kagome threw her arms around her mothers neck as Sota burst through the door. The shrine was now engulfed in the bright blue light of the bone eaters well.

"Kagome!" Sota yelled as he ran into the shrine and stopped in front of the others "You're going back aren't you? Back to InuYasha."

Kagome let go of her mother and turned to her little brother.

"I am." She wiped the tears from her face and pulled Sota into her arms "Thank you Sota...if not for you, I would have lost my hope a long time ago."

"I'll miss you nee-chan!" Sota hugged Kagome tightly "I'll miss you so much!"

He kissed her cheek as she pulled back. "Tell InuYasha 'hi' for me okay?"

Kagome ruffled his hair as she took the backpack "I will."

Grandpa stood with his hands on the side of the well, staring down into the blue light, his body shaking.

"Gramps?" Kagome slung the bag over her shoulder and put her hand on his back "Are you..."

He nodded and then turned to her with a small smile, even as tears poured down his face. "This is what is best for you dear. As sad as it is for me to say goodbye, only this can make you truly happy. And, like your mother, I only wish for your happiness."

Kagome wrapped him in a tight hug for a moment then he pushed her away. "You better go now." he nodded encouragingly "You've been waiting for this for a long time...it would be a shame to miss your opportunity because you dillydallied."

Kagome nodded and turned to her mother one last time.

"Mama..." She fell against her mothers chest a final time. "Thank you...thank you for understanding."

"After all this time...after watching you suffer these past three years...how could I _not_ understand? You don't belong to this world anymore Kagome. You belong with the one you love, you belong with InuYasha." Mrs. Higurashi stepped back and cupped Kagome's cheeks in her hands again. "Be happy my Kagome."

She kissed Kagome's cheeks and then stepped away. She watched with a full heart as Kagome stepped up on the side of the well and turned back, giving them a final wave.

And then, she jumped into the sea of bright blue light. The light dimmed and then went out completely.

The Bone Eaters Well was silent once again.

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"InuYasha..." Miroku began "I think tomorrow we should return to the village on the other side of the river."

"What for?" InuYasha looked at Miroku suspiciously.

"I believe I sense a strong demonic aura still lingering around it."

InuYasha rolled his eyes "Strong demonic aura my ass."

"Miroku!" Shippo yelled as he shook his head "You just want to scam them for more rice!"

"Really Miroku!" Sango shook her head "I thought you'd changed your ways."

"Well my dear wife." Miroku grinned and scooped his daughters up from the ground, one in each arm. "We _DO_ have three children to support."

"That's no excuse!" InuYasha gave Miroku and extremely dirty look "The village has harvested more than enough to get us through the winter!"

"Girls..." Miroku smiled at his daughters "Go play with Uncle InuYasha while Papa helps mama." He set them down, one on each of InuYasha's shoulders.

InuYasha's heart swelled as their giggles filled the air around his head, enjoying himself as he tickled the bottoms of their feet...

...then, they went for the ears.

"Miroku..." he grumbled "Do something about the twins."

"Not the ears kids." Miroku admonished softly as he pinned a diaper to the clothes line

Sango looked at InuYasha apologetically as she bent over her basket of laundry "Sorry Inuyasha."

"You're a toy!" Shippo snickered

InuYasha gave him a look then scooped the girls off his shoulder and plopped them atop Shippo "Go slay the kitsune."

"SLAY SLAY!" The girls cheered as they gleefully attacked Shippo

"Hey!" Shippo yelled in indignation. _'slay indeed!'_ "What's this all of a sudden?"

But InuYasha was no longer listening. The wind had shifted and his nose began to tickle, picking up a faint scent from the direction of the forest. He jumped to his feet, his eyes fixed on something in the distance.

"InuYasha?" Sango asked "Are you..."

But he was gone before the words were completed. The scent grew stronger the deeper he ran into the forest...a scent that made his heart hammer and his spirit leap with joy.

It was _HER_ scent!

Even as he ran toward the well, her scent growing stronger and stronger, his mind cautioned him to be careful. To not get his hopes up. He had followed her scent once before, nearly two years earlier, and all it had lead to was her old broken down bicycle, left in ruins in the same place where it had been destroyed.

But the old bicycle hadn't smelled like this. It was unmistakably Kagome...yet her scent had changed subtly, matured.

He stopped at the beginning of the clearing, glaring over the top of the bone eaters well, afraid to take another step closer. Then his ears picked up a rustling coming from inside. Someone was trying to climb up the vines. His mind screamed...

_'Kagome!!!'_

Was it really her? Had Kagome somehow returned to him? After all the moons that had passed...all the times he had nearly lost his hope...after all the pain he had suffered over the last three years...

_'Kagome!!!'_

InuYasha ran to the side of the well and stuck his arm inside. Warm fingers wrapped around his own and InuYasha nearly sobbed out in happiness. He would have recognized that touch anywhere...it was...

_**'KAGOME!!!!!'**_

He pulled and slowly her face emerged, the fall of dark bangs, then soft brown eyes and at last, soft pink lips over a stubborn, determined chin.

His eyes locked onto hers as he pulled her the rest of the way from the well until she stood on the side ...Kagome...somehow, his best friend, his koishii, his Kagome...had returned to him...at last

"InuYasha...I'm sorry..." Her voice was even sweeter than he had remembered. Matured with time, yet still so beautiful. "Were you waiting...?"

"Kagome..." His heart soared, rearing up from his stomach and taking flight. He bit hard into the side of his mouth, afraid that this was once again one of the many dreams he'd had over the past three years and InuYasha was afraid ...afraid that once again the light of day would take her from him. He tasted the blood, tangy and bitter in his mouth...and he knew. This was no dream...this was Kagome..._his _Kagome...restored to him at last.

He pulled her into his arms and said the first thing that came to mind. "You idiot...what have you been doing?"

Tight in his arms, Kagome's body shook with gentle laughter. InuYasha...he was still so eloquent. But then,...only InuYasha could greet her with an insult, and still sound so precious...so loving.

"Ka...!" Shippo's voice filled the air, and then Sango...

"Kagome-chan!"

"Miroku-sama! Sango-chan! Shippo-chan!" Kagome felt like she could have fainted from pure happiness. "I'm back..."

She was back...back in the place where she belonged. Once again she was embraced by the people she had dreamed of seeing again for so long.

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That night the village held a feast in honor of their returned miko. They danced until the stars rode high in the sky and they had exhausted half of their stores of Saki. InuYasha found himself once again frustrated. It just wasn't fair. Of all of them, he had missed Kagome the most...yet every time he had tried to steal a moment alone with her they were interrupted.

It wasn't until nearly dawn, as the first pink streaks of light appeared on the horizon that he pulled her away from the village to sit under the branches of the sacred tree...their beloved Goshinboku.

"They suit you." InuYasha smiled as he put his arm around her "The miko robes."

Upon returning to the village Kagome had cast off her modern clothes in favor of the traditional miko clothing she had discovered tucked into the bottom of her backpack.

"Are you sure?" she asked nervously "It's okay...I mean...I don't remind you too much of Kikyo when I wear them?"

"No." He shook his head and pulled her closer. "I stopped seeing Kikyo in you a long, long time ago. The clothes you wear don't really matter to me. I'm just..." he stopped, not trusting his voice any longer.

Kagome had never been one to let him off the hook and she wasn't about to start now.

"Just what?"

He smiled, his cheeks turning adorably pink "I'm just so happy that you've returned."

"I am too." Kagome smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling with tears. "I never wanted to leave you. The last three years, Inuyasha...they've been like living in hell for me."

She sighed and relaxed against him. "I wondered the whole time, how is InuYasha? Is InuYasha happy?"

InuYasha laughed "I'm sure you thought of the others too."

"Of course I did!" Kagome grinned "I missed them all so much! Kaede and Shippo ...and Miroku and Sango...I tried to search, to see what happened to them, but, I couldn't find them. It made me so sad."

She stopped and took a deep breath "But the one I missed the most, the one who I missed so much it broke my heart...was always you."

InuYasha pulled her completely into his arms, his hands gently stroking her soft hair...the hair he had missed so much and dreamed about.

"It was the same for me." He confessed "I missed you so much Kagome, at times, I couldn't breathe because it hurt so much."

Kagome pulled back slight to look into his eyes "Really?"

"What do you mean 'really'? InuYasha's voice was irritated "What did you think I was doing here, all alone without you?"

"But, you never _were_ alone InuYasha!" Kagome protested "The others...Miroku and Sango...Kaede and Shippo...they were here with you."

"And you had your family with you, and those annoying giggling friends of yours...and that...that homo bastard." he looked at her "Right?"

"Hojo" She corrected with a roll of her eyes "Well, yes, of course...but..."

"But?" he crossed his arms into his sleeves.

"They could never replace you InuYasha!" She yelled, a fresh batch of tears rolled down her face as she threw herself into his arms and held on as if for dear life. "Because...BECAUSE I LOVE YOU INUYASHA!"

"So what makes you think..." he said softly against her hair "...that it was any different for me?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, her voice confused.

"Kagome." he pulled away from her "Did you ever finish school?"

"What?" Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion

"Did you ever finish high school?" he drew it out like she was slow or something "Did you ever gratulate."

"You mean graduate, and yes I did." She said smugly, his tone nettling her "In the top ten in my class I'll have you know. But, what has that got to do..."

"Then how can you still be so fucking stupid?" he grinned

"Who are you calling stupid?" She pulled away from him, definitely feeling a return of the irritation he had always brought out in her "You...you dough head!"

InuYasha began to laugh. And laugh. And laugh. He laughed so hard he nearly rolled off the roots they sat on.

"What's so damned funny?" Kagome crossed her arms over her chest

"You." he sobered down into his familiar, cocky, smirk "You're just still so CUTE when you get mad!"

"I hardly think it's 'cute' to call someone fucking stupid." she glared "Especially when that someone has spent the last three years miserable without you."

"You're right." InuYasha tried, and failed, to wipe the smirk off his face "But...you are. Stupid I mean."

Kagome opened her mouth to argue but InuYasha silenced her with a finger on her lips.

"You're stupid Kagome, because you seem to think it was easy for me to be without you all this time. You're stupid because even after I as much as said it, you still don't see the truth."

"InuYasha...?"

"You said you were miserable without me, because you love me. Well, I was miserable too...and why do you think that was?"

Kagome looked up at him, her eyes growing damp again as a lump the size of a garbage truck lodged in her throat, cutting off her ability to speak.

InuYasha smiled and took her face in his hands. "I swore that when you returned to me, I would tell you something that I should have told you a long time before you were taken away from me."

His eyes were more intense than she had ever seen them. More than the night Kikyo died, more than when they had fought the final battle with Naraku, more than when he found her in hell. Even more intense than they had been when their eyes first met that afternoon as he pulled her out of the well.

"I swore that, when you returned..." he closed his eyes and rested his forehead against hers"...I would tell you...that...I love you."

"Oh InuYasha..." Kagome felt the flood of tears break from her eyes. She reached her hands around him and held him tight. "Hearing you say that...it makes it all okay now. All the sadness and pain I felt these past three years...it's all better now, because I know now...I wasn't alone all that time. You were sad with me. You hurt with me. The whole time we were apart we were still joined by our desire to be together again...because...because we loved each other."

"Love each other." he corrected "We love each other. And now, we can both move on."

Kagome looked at him and smiled "Together."

InuYasha smiled back at her and wiped her tears away. "Together."

Then, as the spectacular sunrise broke over the Sengoku Jidai, he lowered his lips to hers and for the first time ever...

...InuYasha kissed her.

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Epilogue

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**_Kagome_**

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Now that I am a hanyou, I cringe when I think of all the little body sounds that InuYasha was always so easy to pick up on. No wonder he always knew when I was hungry, or tired. He could hear my stomach, softly growling and my soft sighs of exhaustion. But I can't complain too much, the sounds made it so he always took such good care of me. And...the hearing of a hanyou came in awfully handy when our six children, two girls and four boys were small.

InuYasha's been teasing me lately, saying that now that the last has left the nest it is time to begin on a new batch of pups. I keep telling him I'll let him know, though of course, I would be proud to bear him another six, or twelve, or whatever the fates decide we need. Thanks to Midoriko we have plenty of time.

It wasn't long after my return that she came to us. She told us that the time apart had been nescisary, so that we could truly know our hearts before making the choice we would soon have to make. For, in gratitude for destroying the Shikon no Tama and setting her soul free, she offered us the chance for me to become like InuYasha, a InuYokai hanyou. We took it of course, with the provision that we wouldn't interfere with my history. At the time, it seemed like such an easy promise to make.

It's been horrible at times. I wanted so badly to warn my grandmother of the cancer that was eating her up in side, and even more, to stop my father from boarding the train to Osaka that would lead to his death.

But, even as hard as all that was...the last three years have been the hardest. It's torn InuYasha up, watching past me in such sadness over the bone eaters well closing. I found him more than once, sitting outside my old bedroom window in the middle of the night...listening to me cry while tears poured down his own face. I too wanted to go to my past self, to encourage myself to never give up hope...but then I remembered, I didn't have to. Sesshomaru would do it for me.

I worried at first, his resemblance to InuYasha is obvious...even with the silver fangs we wear that hide our true yokai forms. But then I remembered that neither Sota nor Mama ever mentioned a visitor that looked like InuYasha, so, it must have been okay.

Today, I watched myself go to the well for the very last time. InuYasha and I sat in Goshinboku, watching as the familiar blue light filled the shrine, our words of farewell drifting out on the wind...and I heard every word thanks to the miracle that is InuYokai hearing. My heart broke as I watched Mama, Sota and gramps...their arms linked together, walk into the house as fat tears rolled down their faces.

Once they were inside, InuYasha and I jumped from the tree. At last, it was okay for us to go to them. To tell them of everything that had happened over the past five hundred years. Our reunion was so happy...worth the years we had to stay away. Our children will be coming this weekend...returning from the places around the world that they have spread out to, and soon, they will meet their uncle, great grandfather, and grandmother.

We will all be together...at last.

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**_InuYasha_**

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I use to think that the three years Kagome and I were apart was the worst time in my life.

I was wrong.

The worst, was when the years brought us to her time naturally and I had to watch her suffer for three years, unable to go to her and bring her comfort.

I hated every minute of it, knowing that Kagome was hurting and it was because of me. But, when Midoriko gave us her blessing and allowed Kagome to become an InuYokai hanyou like me...thus matching our lifetimes, we'd had to make a promise...that we would never interfere with Kagome's history, because, even the simplest change could cause incredible chaos.

I guess some would say we cheated. But I don't think that is technically true, since Sesshomaru made the decision to go to Sota and Mama Higurashi on his own. Over the years the two have become almost insanely close...it's sickening to watch at times to be honest, like a big brother with his little sister...always arguing one minute, the next attempting to hug the stuffing out of one another. Some years ago, Kagome got Sesshomaru addicted to chocolate...now we can't even get into his house without giving him and his wife a Hershey's bar.

It's kind of sick really.

But still, even with our large family at her side, even with Sesshomaru, her best friend in the world supporting her... It's been hard on Kagome, having to stay away from her family, having to watch from afar as things happened that she wished more than anything she could change.

But it was the price we had known from the beginning that we had to pay to be together.

As I watch Kagome sleeping next to me, the moonlight shining on her silvery hair, I know that it was all worth it. Those three years were like a test, proving to the fates how much Kagome and I loved each other and belonged together.

You can see it when we look at each other, when you look at our children. Kagome and I have a love that can not be broken. Not by Naraku, not by distance, not even by time.

So even though it hurt so much to be apart from her, it was worth it.

Because in the end, when you look at the big picture....

...Three years wasn't such a horrible price to pay in exchange for forever.

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Hope you've enjoyed this ending...I had to inject the little chocolate bit because it was my very favorite thing from my most popular story of all time "The Search"

I know I strayed fairly far from canon while dreaming up my epilogue...but, thats why they call it "Creative License" right? LOL I had considered a sequel, but, decided at the last minute not to do it. I'm feeling more and more lead these days to leave fanfiction behind and start my own projects. Whether I actually will or not...eh...who knows. I have a bunch of projects to finish, and I am considering picking up my story Dr. Miko again. I'd really like to finish all my stories that are on Hiatus.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed and loved "Three Years."

InuPuppy Wuvs and Kisses!

CJ

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